Integrative Perspective Therapy

Integrative Psychotherapy conceives reality in a an aspect that it shares with the different orientation approaches experiential-humanist and with the Systemic Family Therapy. That is to say, it understands the person as a system, this being a set of elements connected to each other, in such a way that the variation of one of them will influence and alter the set.

This type of therapy also considers that the system is found within larger systems (family, for example) and in turn these systems within larger ones (such as a specific culture). The individual is also understood as integrated by different subsystems (cognitive, bodily, affective, interactional, praxic, among others) forming a reality.

For this reason, even when we consider that our therapeutic model is framed within this movement, it is not indifferent to the internal discrepancy underlying the “integration” of different methodologies and opts for certain commitments, both theoretical and meta-theoretical, which makes that the integration between different models is uneven. In some cases, the overlap is only at the technical level, while in others it synthesizes psychological and clinical theories and, in others, it shares metatheories common to several of them, or part of those metatheories.

How Integrative Perspective therapy works

Our therapeutic model of Integrative Psychology is epistemologically constructivist, that is, it starts from the conception of existence as an external reality alien to one’s own consciousness or, it comes to the same thing, objective in this sense, whose knowledge is not produced directly, but through the mediation of individual subjectivity itself, so that even the simplest forms of contact with reality, for example sensations, are also perceived imbued with subjectivity.

For this reason, reality is susceptible to different interpretations, without being able to attribute to any of them the ability to capture its objective totality. Therefore, it shares this generic affirmation with the psychology of Personal Constructs as well as with , the psychotherapy of , Focusing, certain existential approaches and, in general, non-directive approaches, which participate in this conception of the subjective dimension of knowledge and are attentive, from the clinical point of view, to the patient (or client) achieving a coherent and significant internal system for him, rather than imposing a certain vision of reality or allegedly objective content.

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The Integrative Perspective attaches great importance to the vital project of the person and the search for the meaning of life, thus coinciding with the classical existential approach and updating the Aristotelian classification of the four causes, without limiting itself to the material and efficient causes, granting relevance to the formal cause and, especially, to the final cause.

This type of psychotherapy understands the human being as partially free, that is, that he is not merely reactive to specific stimuli and, within the conditioning to which he is subjected, maintains a margin of freedom of choice for which he is responsible and for which constitutes an agent subject.

Integrative psychotherapy attaches great importance to what he calls the analysis of the vital script, including within the global objectives of psychotherapy, if it is in harmony with the demand of the patient or client, the possibility of replacing a rigidly constructed project (what which is the script itself) or the absence of a project (absence of a script, or a script to get by in analytical-transactional terms), for a flexible project chosen from the freedom and lucidity that at that moment in his life he is capable of (getting out of the dash, or winner script).

This theory gives relevance to the formal cause, manifesting itself in therapeutic practice from the conception of a model based, above all, on an analysis of the process (or form), that the subject develops to achieve those objectives, similar to the perspective of the Psychotherapy of the , the Psychology of the Personal Constructs and the Post-Rogerian Psychotherapy.

In summary, we could say that the Integrative Psychotherapy approach is a globalizing model, which is characterized by all the metatheoretical, theoretical, psychotherapeutic and methodological assumptions that are described below.

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Integrative therapy is psychodynamic, since it shows the importance of motivation in human behavior, and in this sense it coincides with the Freudian psychoanalytic approach, coinciding with the assumptions of , the Psychology of Personal Constructs and Psychotherapy of , among others. , in emphasizing the relevance of the teleological nature of said behavior and conceiving the motivations not as energetic impulses, but as aspirations that stimulate the human being towards certain achievements.

Likewise, the Integrative Perspective accepts the variability of motivations, that is, it assumes that the person expands interests and motivations that are not necessarily the different disguises of one or two original drives.

This type of psychotherapy also accepts the distinction between motivations and meta-motivations, that beyond the tendencies of vitality and the individual self, the human being has genuine transitive tendencies that do not coincide with the sublimation of other tendencies, but rather have a own entity.

Likewise, the integrative perspective considers that ethical values ​​constitute an important core of personality and that the sense of identity gathers around them and facilitates personal evolution towards autonomy.

This theory forms an integrating model, considering that there is currently no psychotherapy model that is valid for all people, problems and circumstances, and for this reason it is receptive and open to dialogue with contributions from other models or paradigms that could be integrated into coherent way and that could make the treatment more effective.

Integrative perspective therapy is holistic in relation to the person and the systems in which they participate, that is, it deals with the whole and considers that it is necessary to work jointly and integratedly in the different subsystems of the individual, developing any of the works carried out in a certain level of intervention, within the experience of the subject, considered as a global whole.

Goals of Integrative Perspective therapy

The objective of Integrative Psychotherapy is given by the client’s (or patient’s) demand, rather than by indicating a specific model, although it must be taken into account that this demand will not always be made explicitly and that it can be redefined as throughout the therapeutic process and open up to more supraordinate or more symptomatic levels.

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This technique attaches great importance to the therapeutic bond, and proposes the adoption by the therapist of attitudes of unconditional positive acceptance towards the client, empathy and authenticity, not only as ethical requirements that frame the relationship, but as essential for an effective alliance can emerge. However, he does not consider that these three basic attitudes are sufficient for this involvement on the part of the patient or client. At the same time, it understands that the therapeutic link must be attentive, in an idiosyncratic way, to the disturbances in the link that the person presents, to the hypothetical causes thereof, and to provide them with global experiences different from those that contributed to the creation of the disturbance.

This methodology demands an active role from the therapist who, while empathically listening to the client, interacts with him making concrete exploration proposals, separating himself from non-directivity.

It attaches relevant importance to the role of the functions dependent on the right hemisphere, considering that emotions, non-verbal behavior and intuition are very powerful when it comes to offering an approach to reality that is different from the usual one and allows the patient to be enriched with the coherence and wisdom of these phenomena. Likewise, it emphasizes the importance of change events, which are aimed at overcoming blockages, dispersions or repetitive distortions regarding the process of the person’s vital flow.

To conclude, we believe that the simultaneous use of several models does not necessarily imply a fragmented treatment of the human being. Nor do we believe, therefore, in , that it is an uncompromising eclecticism that does not dare to opt for a specific model. On the contrary, we think that this multiplicity of models can be a source of enrichment for the understanding of the incomprehensible mystery of the human.